The Japanese's grain requisition team was vigorously torturing each village, causing public resentment to boil, and this situation quickly spread to the hidden camp of the Yangjiawan guerrillas.
"Sir, those people on the grain collection team are really worse than beasts. They robbed the villagers of all their food. They didn't even let go of the cattle plowing the fields. They took them all away."
In the guerrilla detachment headquarters in Yangjiawan, Liang Xiaoshan, a guerrilla member who hurried back from outside, was breathing heavily and reported to Yang Ling angrily.
After Yang Ling's inspection, Liang Xiaoshan and other local guerrillas were sent out by Yang Ling to inquire about the Japs. They happened to encounter the Japs recruiting food, so they hurriedly came back to report the news to Yang Ling.
At present, Yang Ling and others have not established an intelligence network in this area, so they can only rely on these guerrillas who are familiar with the local situation to go out for investigation.
"Do you know how many people are in the Japanese food collection team?"
Yang Ling poured a glass of water for Liang Xiaoshan, who was sweating from running, and asked with a solemn expression.
Liang Xiaoshan replied: "Each grain requisition team has a similar number of people. It is led by people who maintain the meeting. There are puppet soldiers and Japanese soldiers, but the number is only twenty or thirty."
When he heard that the Japanese's food requisition team was so small, the deputy detachment leader punched the table and said angrily: "Chief Yang, let's beat him up!"
"Don't be impatient." Yang Ling was not impatient and continued to ask Liang Xiaoshan: "Have you figured out the Japanese troops in Qinghe Town that I asked you to inquire about?"
"After asking around clearly, there are now more than fifty Japanese and more than five hundred puppet troops in Qinghe Town. The leader's name is Sadao Kasai..."
"Well, you've worked hard, go down and rest first."
After some careful questioning, Yang Ling sent Liang Xiaoshan to rest.
"Sir, we must help the villagers." As a local, Liang Xiaoshan couldn't swallow the bad breath in his heart when he saw the people being bullied like this.
"Don't worry, we will definitely not stand idly by this time." Yang Ling patted Liang Xiaoshan on the shoulder and said.
After Liang Xiaoshan safely walked out of the gate of the detachment headquarters, Yang Ling returned to his seat and sat down, taking a newly drawn simple map of the vicinity of Qinghe Town and looking at it.
Compared to the one-fifty-thousandth map they brought with them, this simple map drawn by the guerrilla reconnaissance team these days is much clearer.
"Sir Yang, we have been here for a while. Now the little devils are grabbing food everywhere. Let's gather our brothers and go out to fight!"
Seeing Yang Ling sitting there calmly studying the map, deputy detachment leader Zhang Lieguo was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, he couldn't wait to go out and fight the little Japs.
His injuries had healed these days, but thinking that he had almost died under a Japanese gun made him panic.
"What's the rush? Didn't Liang Xiaoshan say that the Japanese grain collection teams are still in the villages and the grain hasn't been transported yet? We still have time." The more Yang Ling got to this point, the calmer and calmer he became.
After all, they were behind enemy lines now. Although they had to fight the Japanese and leave food for the people, they had to think carefully about how to fight and how to escape.
Now that the guerrillas have finally regained some of their strength, they must win the battle, and do it neatly.
Faced with the Japanese's pressing advances on the frontal battlefield, in order to cover the relocation of the people and the retreat of factories and schools, they had to fight to the death with the Japanese in bloody battles on many battlefields.
But now it is different. They are in the dark and the Japs are in the open. How to effectively eliminate the Japs while also protecting ourselves to achieve the purpose of the operation will test the commander's command ability.
Seeing that Yang Ling was not in a hurry, Zhang Lieguo, who was impatient, had no choice but to sit down and watch where Yang Ling lowered his head and studied the map.
It was only when Zhang Lieguo's patience was about to run out that Yang Ling put away the map, raised his head and ordered: "Let the commanders of each company come over for a meeting."
"Yes!" Zhang Lieguo, the deputy detachment leader, ran to inform him without even thinking about it.
Looking at Zhang Lieguo who couldn't wait, Yang Ling also smiled bitterly.
The training of Yang Ling and his third guerrilla detachment in recent days has greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the brothers. Yang Ling sent out investigation brothers disguised as civilians to investigate the enemy's situation, just to fight a war.
After all, no matter how well you train on the training ground, it will still have to withstand the test of actual combat. Only troops that have been truly tempered by the flames of war will truly mature and become stronger.
Originally, Yang Ling wanted to knock down some Japanese strongholds and replenish the food and ammunition that their third guerrilla detachment was short of, but now that he had gone through the iron shoes and found nowhere, it took no effort to get them.
The Japs' grain collection teams are now operating in various villages. It is much easier to eliminate them than to take the risk of attacking the gun towers of the Japs' strongholds, which are heavily guarded by soldiers.
Soon, the officers of each company of the Third Guerrilla Detachment gathered at the detachment's headquarters. When they heard that they were going to fight, each of them became excited.
"Hahaha, damn, I've been so depressed these days, I'll definitely kill a few more little devils this time!"
"Sir, whether it's to attack the artillery towers or Qinghe Town, our company is willing to be the vanguard!"
...
The officers are all eager to try it. It is said that it takes a thousand days to raise an army but it takes a short time to use it. They have been training for so long and have long wanted to practice with Japanese soldiers.
However, Yang Ling always maintained a cautious attitude and did not attack rashly, which made the brothers hold back uncomfortably tight.
"This time we are not going out to attack Qinghe Town, nor are we going to attack the artillery towers. Now the Japanese grain requisition teams are collecting grain from each village, so we will attack the grain requisition teams." Yang Ling issued the mission of the battle.
Fighting these grain collection teams can not only eliminate the enemy, but also preserve the people's food and leave a good impression on the local people, so this is also a matter of killing two birds with one stone.
"Sir, just give me the order on how to beat you. We will listen to you." Second Company Commander Wu Changqing said.
Yang Ling looked at the officers who were enthusiastic about fighting and felt very satisfied. He was confident in the victory of this attack.
"This time our two combat companies all attacked. Deputy Captain Zhang and I each led a company to eliminate the Japanese grain collection teams in Zhangjiaji, Xiaowangzhuang and other nearby villages..."
Yang Ling did not send out all the troops, but only let the combat companies attack. This way, the target could not be too large, and secondly, the small number of people would make it easier to fight flexibly.
"Commander Lei, Wang Dongming, you lead the remaining people to stay in the camp."
Although Lei Xiong and others also wanted to go out with them, with Yang Ling's order, they had to hang their heads and stay to look after the house.
After Yang Ling arranged everything properly, more than 300 brothers from two combat companies soon left the Yangjiawan camp with dry food, weapons and ammunition, and headed straight for the target.